Tragedy is Inevitable
by BornToBeAGingerArcher
Summary: AU where Padme doesn't die in childbirth


Obi Wan rushes her back to Coruscant to get the medical attention she so desperately needs. She holds the twins in her arms, wondering what the future will hold for them.

Her children have to be separated. It's for the best, Obi Wan tells her. He just wants to protect them and her. Anakin is dead and gone; only Vader remains. She knows that isn't true, it can't be. Even after all Anakin did, to others and to her, she knows that somewhere deep in his heart there is still good. Still, she has to do what is better for her children.

Luke is taken, she doesn't know where. She and Leia flee to the most remote edges of the galaxy, and settle on a tiny moon.

Most of the people in the village are struggling to make a living as taxes are high and farming is difficult. Nevertheless, they can tell that the young woman and her daughter are in need and welcome them with open arms. They move in with an elderly farmer and his wife; Padmé splits her time between helping on his farm and watching over her daughter.

She never talks about Anakin to anyone, except her daughter, in the late hours of the night when no one else can hear her. She doesn't want her former identity to be known, nor her loyalties questioned. She tells Leia stories of their adventures during the Clone Wars, how her father was so brave. How he wanted so much to change the galaxy, to free all slaves and stamp out evil. She never dares to breathe a word about who he is now, though. She doesn't want Leia to grow up with anger and revenge in her heart.

Leia cries nearly every night when they first arrive. Nothing can sooth her broken heart, not even the sweetest words from her mother. Padmé can't help cry too; her son is Force knows where, her husband is changed nearly past the point of recognition, and her former people are suffering under the cruel hand of the Emperor.

She wants to fight, to destroy Palpatine the way he destroyed her life. She knows she can't. There's no way of raising an army big enough to fight against the Empire. Her place right now is with her daughter; Leia needs her.

Still, most days are happy. Children flock to the former senator's side, asking her questions about herself and tel her stories about their lives. She sings old tunes that her mother taught her and songs she learned that tell the history of Naboo and the surrounding system. She makes friends with most of the men and women of the village, who admire her passion for justice and empathy towards those who are suffering.

Leia grows more every day. Padmé is amazed at how soon she learns how to crawl, then walk, then run about. Leia begins demonstrating her Force abilities on her third birthday, flinging small rocks about her as she. The most Padmé can do to help her hone these skills is to teach her patience and self-control. Soon, she's able to flick food off the table from across the the room.

She becomes quite the nuisance, running around in the fields, trying to levitate small livestock, and "encouraging" the other children to be her accomplices in swiping food.

Although the planet is nothing like Naboo or Coruscant, somehow it feels like home.

When Leia is five, everything changes. Somehow, Sidious is able to detect her Force-sensitivity, unhoned as it is. He fears that she will grow to be a great Jedi and destroy everything he has built.

When Padmé hears of the impending attack, she sends Leia with her most trusted friend to hide in the most desolate part of the planet. But Padmé won't back down. These are her people now, and she won't leave them.

The storm-troopers show no mercy. Children are callously ripped from their mothers' arms if the unfortunate women are not slaughtered first. Entire villages are wiped out as they march through the land. Not even during the Clone Wars was there such systematic genocide. The villagers fight valiantly, but it is clearly a losing battle. There are too many storm-troopers and most of the villagers have no blasters, only crude farming equipment to use as weapons. Padmé staggers under the weight of the rapidly increasing death count. She feels ill as she wonders whether her daughter is among the dying or dead.

She herds most of the remaining villagers towards ships in a desperate attempt to save the last few children. Most require immediate attention and few can stand under their own power. As she is boarding the last ship, a storm-trooper runs up behind her and tears an infant from her arms. As she fights to regain the child, other soldiers assault her. In the fray she mortally wounded, but remains tenacious to the last. Finally, the child is safe. But Padmé knows that she will probably never see her daughter again. She's lost too much blood already and it will be hours before any help is available.

Once the troopers leave, villagers who had hidden during the attack come to help her. They tend to her mortal wounds as best they can and try to find where Leia is hidden so they can say goodbye to one another.

She cradles her child in her arms and tells Leia how good and brave she is. Somehow, Leia knows what's happening. She can feel her mother slipping away. She weeps and begs Padmé not to leave her. Before Padmé dies, she tells her friend to take Leia to Alderan to be raised by the Organas, who are the last few people she truly trusts.

All those years later, Leia tells her brother how their mother was beautiful, kind, and sad. But more importantly, she left a legacy of courage and selflessness. One of never, ever backing down from what's right, no matter how hard it may be.

That's a legacy Leia intends to protect.


End file.
